It has been previously demonstrated that a high temperature superconductor coating on a platinum wire substrate could be produced using the laser heated pedestal growth method (LHPG).
In this work, the superconducting material was Bi.sub.2 Sr.sub.2 CaCu.sub.2 O.sub.8. It was found that a layer with a thickness of only 2 micrometers adjacent to the wire reacted with the platinum, while the rest of the coating was a high temperature superconductor. This technique, with some modifications, has also been applied to growing superconducting ribbons by appropriately shaping the meniscus.